118 | William Little and Connor Melton Pre World Road Championships in Copenhagen

This week Oska sits down with Connor Melton and Will Little — training partners, close friends, and the two Kiwis heading to Copenhagen to race the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships. Both come from very different starting points: Will battled undiagnosed gluten intolerance and low iron for years before finding real consistency, while Connor spent a decade in Maria Hesson's development squad before moving to coach Sam McLean when he outgrew it heading into the senior ranks. We get into some genuinely big topics — why New Zealand's national titles have lost some of their shine as the global marathon calendar pulls athletes elsewhere, and why there's no incentive (or funding) to bring New Zealand's overseas-based stars home to race domestically the way Australia does. Connor tells the full story of his 2023 World Cross Country race in Tallahassee — brutal heat and humidity, a genuine hands-and-knees crawl through the final stretch, and being pulled by medical staff 200m from the finish. We also get into his PhD in mechanical engineering, which is genuinely relevant to this podcast: his thesis was on an accessible way to 3D-print custom, graded-stiffness heel pad cushioning for plantar heel pain. From there it's training structure, balancing full-time work and postgrad study with elite mileage, a fun rapid-fire round, and a proper, heartfelt tribute to their 82-year-old coach Sam McLean — who coaches for free, turns up on his bike in all weather, and can still recall race splits from over 50 years ago. Sam even wrote in his own tribute to both athletes, which gets read out in full. This episode covers: Will and Connor's very different paths into running Why NZ's national titles don't carry the weight they used to Connor's brutal World Cross Country collapse in Tallahassee Connor's PhD: 3D-printed heel pad cushioning Balancing full-time work and postgrad study with elite training Training structure and how the pair work together Racing shoes: both in the ASICS Metaspeed Edge Tribute to coach Sam McLean What success looks like in Copenhagen